Rocket Power
Rocket Power is an animated series which debuted on Nickelodeon in August of 1999. Premise Produced at Klasky Csupo Inc. of Los Angeles (the creators of the Rugrats media franchise), the show revolves around the day to day adventures of (at present) middle-school age extreme sports enthusiasts who live in the fictitious Southern California beach resort town of Ocean Shores, where they enjoy [surfing, roller skating, skateboarding, bicycling, street hockey, and other active pastimes. In fact, due to the activities in the subject matter, the producers retained [http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/99/50/news-lowery.php a Surfer Magazine staff member] as a language and technical consultant to make sure that things like ocean waves and skate park halfpipes worked with some degree of credibility. Characters* * Oswald "Otto" Rocket (Joseph Ashton), an obsessive, compulsive, and all-too successful and courageous athlete whose cheeky attitude and short sighted judgment often get him into trouble. * Regina "Reggie" Rocket (Shayna Fox), Otto's big sister by one year, an aspiring publisher who while no less competitive and skillful as an athlete happens to be of calmer disposition. She once withdrew from a competition she had trained hard for simply to serve punishment at home, in "Rainy Days and Sundaes". * Maurice "Twister" Rodriguez (Ulises Cuadra; Gilbert Leal), who is Otto's best friend, a daredevil on wheels and aspiring videographer. He hates to be called by his real name, and he is bullied around by his big brother, Lars. * Sam Dullard (Sam Saletta; Gary LeRoi Gray; Sean Marquette; Mike Lane) (also known as "the Squid"), a Hutchinson, Kansas native and relative newcomer, who while not as athletically gifted as the others has found a niche as the brains and conscience of the group -- and also as a rock-solid goalie when they play hockey (especially in Power Play). * Raymond "Ray" (sometimes "Raymundo") Rocket (John Kassir), the widowed fortysomething father of Otto and Reggie and the owner of the Shore Shack , a beachside diner where the gang often chow down. Raymundo drives a vintage woodie. * Tito Makani. Jr. (Ray Bumatai), a Hawaiian surfer and self-styled philosopher who helps his old friend Raymundo run the business. He has a young nephew who occasionally visits from the islands, named Keoni (voiced by professional surfer Matty Liu), who has appeared in a few episodes.He starts much of his advice would begin with "Like the ancient Hawaiians say, ..." * Lars Rodriguez (Lombardo Boyar), a teenage tough guy, has taken it upon himself to make life difficult for his little brother Twister and the other kids from time to time. He is often seen in the company of his friends Pi, Sputs, and Animal. * Eddie Valentine (Jordan Warkol), the self-styled "Prince of the Netherworld," is a sometime participant in the Rockets' activities and a frequent target of Lars' bullying. The son of a magician couple, he favors an outfit of a hooded cloak and a scary mask reminiscent of Darth Maul. * Officer Shirley (CCH Pounder) does what she can to keep the peace. * Sherry and Trish (both voiced by Lauren Tom), Reggie's best friends, surfers, and members of the state volleyball team. Have appeared in a handful of stories. Specials and guest stars A made for TV movie, Race Across New Zealand, was shown on Nickelodeon in February 2002 (opposite the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City) and featured activities such as Zorb riding and floating down underground streams, as part of a junior sports competition. Another telefilm based on the series, Reggie's Big (Beach) Break, centering on a spring-break type sports and music beach festival, aired on that channel in July of 2003. Klasky-Csupo announced shortly thereafter in their online newsletter that a third telefilm, Island of the Menehune, about a trip to Hawaii and telling a bit about Raymundo's late wife Danni or Danielle (who got a brief mention, but not by name, in the show's Christmas special in December 2003), would be shown on Nick at some time in the future, and it aired in July 2004. That telefilm subsequently led to a wedding between Ray and Tito's cousin Noelani (voice of Kim Mai Guest) in "The Big Day" (the last new episode to be aired) later the same month. The show has also had cameos from sports figures, for example skaters Tony Hawk ("Enter the Hawk-trix") and Andy MacDonald ("Beach Break]]"), and hockey players Luc Robitaille and Martin Brodeur (Power Play). There have also been episodes on rather unusual topics: Radical New Equipment featured a (rather competitive) handicapped girl snowboarder and won an award from The Association for the Severely Handicapped http://www.tash.org/, while Major Scrummage revolved around Reggie's desire to play rugby, a sport relatively unknown in the US In other media Other projects related to Rocket Power and developed under the aegis of Klasky-Csupo and/or Nickelodeon have included video games like Beach Bandits, and Maximum Rocket Power Live: The Battle For Madtown Park http://sromagazine.biz/mag/staging_cartoon/, a live-action extreme-sports dramatic arena play that briefly toured the U.S. Midwest in spring 2002, before being cancelled over low ticket sales (it had originally been scheduled to tour about 40 cities all over the U.S., all the way into the fall). ' External links * Rocket Power Wiki * Nickelodeon's [http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/display_show.jhtml?show_id=rok Rocket Power site] * Klasky-Csupo's [http://www.cooltoons2.com/rocketpower Rocket Power area on cooltoons.com] (Studio site) * Rocket Power at the Big Cartoon DataBase de:Rocket Power nl:Rocket Power Category:Rocket Power Category:Nicktoons Category:Nickelodeon Category:Animated shows on Nickelodeon Category:Shows on Nickelodeon Category:Television Shows Category:Shows Category:Nickelodeon shows